SUPERMAN #4 (1940)
“Superman versus Luthor” by Jerry Siegel & Paul Cassidy
“Luthor’s Undersea City” by Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster
cover by Joe Shuster
Lex Luthor didn’t waste any time becoming Superman’s nemesis: this had a cover date of March 1940 and Action Comics #23 was in April (technically it takes place earlier), and we already have two Luthor stories!!!
The man on the cover should have a familiar physique.
Is this Lex Luthor? Nope! It’s just some guy.
We begin with SUDDEN EARTHQUAKE!
Superman does some Superman stuff. Don’t ask my how he learned about the earthquake machine, there’s no explanation.
The earthquake machine inventor should have a familiar physique.
Is this Lex Luthor? Nope! It’s just some guy.
The scientist throws Clark Kent out of the window, and when Superman returns he finds out Luthor is behind it. This is how we know this story definitely takes place after Action Comics #23.
Luthor really, REALLY wants to know how the earthquake machine works, and this early in his career he’s not smart to figure it out on his own. And Superman keeps stopping his efforts to steal the invention.
Luthor then challenges Superman by projecting a hologram of his head, but by the way it’s drawn it looks like he’s right there in a tree costume!!!
The contest proposed by Luthor include proving that his machines are faster than Superman…
…and who can reach orbit first, both of which Superman easily wins.
I’m tempted to say this is Superman flying, but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
In retrospect, having a test of strength wasn’t a brilliant idea.
Golden Age Superman really enjoyed showing off and threatening to break people’s skulls, didn’t he?
Up to this point I’ve been saying mostly positive things about Superman, but never forget he’s going to turn into The Worst.
Yeah, don’t try to stop the murdering world-conquering supervillain, it’s no big deal.
Newsflash: even in the Golden Age, Luthor is NOT an idiot!!!
Luthor is ready for Superman…
…who can’t exactly say the same.
He doesn’t try to kill Superman because… well Kryptonite hasn’t been invented yet, so the options are limited… and escapes before Superman destroys the earthquake machine.
Don’t you just love a happy ending? The Golden Age doesn’t!
So we can all agree Superman just murdered the scientist and is just taking care of his own alibi, right?
Moving to the second story, we have Superman running to Oklahoma to learn why oil wells throughout the world stopped working.
It’s so rare to see Superman run if he’s not racing the Flash!
At this point Luthor’s theme seem to be high tech planes that tend to explode.
Lois arrives to cover the story with Clark, but the two are captured.
Superman doing the Vulcan Nerve Pinch a full 26 years before Mr. Spock.
In the Golden Age, if you discover Superman’s identity YOU’RE DEAD.
How to perfectly define Lois Lane in just 2 panels.
And then they hire a plane to visit a hidden city surrounded by dinosaurs! Yes, this is THE SAME STORY.
Not insane enough for you? Superman also fights a giant yellow rat!!!
Okay, time for an explanation: Luthor has discovered the remains of a highly advanced ancient sunken city, who is naturally called… “Pacifo”.
What, did they think “Atlantis” was under copyright!?
I know what you’re thinking. “What does raising Not-Atlantis have to do with ALL the oil wells in the world stopping working!?”.
And the Golden Age answer is “Stop thinking about it and watch Superman punch a T-Rex”.
Of course raising an entire city tends to attract attention, and that leads to the American forces dropping poison gas. (WTF!?)
This causes the island to sink (?????) and Superman makes sure Luthor is eaten by dinosaurs.
Luthor will be back the following month in Superman #5, by the way.
So how DID Luthor lose his hair?
Well, in addition to having two comic books, Superman also had a newspaper strip (to say he was VERY popular would be an understatement), and about a year after this issue one of the strips showed Luthor being bald, with no explanation. The error is attributed to artist Leo Nowak, and there are two theories about it:
A) he mistook Luthor for Ultra-Humanite, who was indeed bald
B) he mistook Luthor for other characters appearing in Action Comics #23
Considering what we’ve seen so far, I’m opting for option B: Luthor is almost the only bad guy from Action Comics #23 who ISN’T bald!
Just imagine someone telling Nowak “draw the bad guy from Action Comics #23, we also used him in Superman #4”, where he could find these:
And those are only from the stories I reviewed, because Superman #4 has ANOTHER two different bad guys who look like future Luthor!!!
Is it any wonder that Nowak got so confused that, by the time he got to draw Luthor in the regular series, THIS was what we got in 1941’s Superman #10 ?
The look was kept starting from his following appearance in Superman #12 by artist John Sikela, and for whatever reason Luthor was stuck being bald.
Historical significance: 0/10
Since I’m not counting this as Luthor’s first story, it has overall no impact.
Silver Age-ness
First story: 0/10
Even Superman’s powers aren’t that crazy yet.
Second story: 8/10
Discount Atlantis and random dinosaurs!!!
Does it stand the test of time? 5/10
The basic plot is fine if you’re comfortable with a simple story, but it doesn’t get a higher score because holy crap Superman doesn’t seem to care one bit if people die!
There was a later story (I think only a few months later!) with an almost identical plot, but there Superman finds the shamed scientist after he tries to commit suicide by blowing up his lab and takes him to a hospital. Later he uses another of the scientist’s inventions to help him fully recover, giving the story a happy ending and a “Science is only evil if people use it for evil” moral.